1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a medical apparatus of the type having an apparatus part provided for application to the body surface of a patient, a patient support mechanism, and means for adjusting the apparatus part and the patient support mechanism relative to each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In medical apparatuses of the type generally described above, adjustment of the apparatus part and of the patient support mechanism can ensue relative to each other by adjusting the position only of the apparatus part or adjusting the position only of the support mechanism, or by adjusting the positions of both the support mechanism and the apparatus part.
In an apparatus of this type, the means for adjusting the apparatus part and the patient support mechanism relative to each other are provided for, among other things, permitting the application of the apparatus part to the body surface of the patient for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes. The apparatus may therefore be a therapy apparatus wherein the apparatus part is a source of acoustic waves, which is applied to the body surface of the patient for acoustic coupling by adjusting the source and the patient support mechanism relative to each other before implementation of a treatment. The source is in turn decoupled from the body surface of the patient after completion of the treatment. In an apparatus of this type, the source of acoustic waves is usually applied to the body surface of the patient after the patient has been positioned (aligned) with a locating system, such an x-ray system or an ultrasound system, so that the region to be treated is situated in a position which coincides with the therapeutic region of action of the acoustic waves generated by the source. When the source is then subsequently applied to the body surface of the patient, there is the risk that the region to be treated may become dislocated as a consequence of the forces which arise as the source is coupled to the body of the patient. Experience has shown that such dislocations increase in proportion to the extent that the direction of application of the source to the patient deviates from a direction which is normal to the region of the body surface to which the source is applied.